balancing proportion. Other color combinations do not have the
same calming influence.

“I think there is something about complementary colors like redand green,” agrees user and co-inventor Durup at Odense. “Red isgiving a mood in the room.”Not only is it relaxing, but it fosters alertness compared tothe darkness in which he used to work. While circadian light-ing experts often correlate blue light rather than red to alertness(although some experts like Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Mar-iana Figueiro believe that red could possibly also have an alertingeffect, as we wrote in our circadian lighting feature last fall; http://bit.ly/2iEsGPI), the alerting effect in Durup’s laparoscopic surgeryrooms is not necessarily circadian per se. That is, it might not bestimulating the circadian rhythm; rather, it is providing light wherethere was little or no light before.

“You can see a lot of things in the red light, but it also has a psychologically activating function as well,” said Durup. “Where you
have working staff, they should not be asleep, but they should be
actuated a little bit. Red is the optimal lighting for the background.”
Odense is also using the warmer light to calm patients as they
enter the operating theater, before they are anesthetized. The person
arrives to warm amber tones that change once the surgery begins
(Fig. 5). If the patient is awake after the surgery, the same warm
tones might bathe the room. Afterwards, bright white light shines
to assist cleaning.

Push-button dial an op

The Chromaviso system relies on DMX wiring, which Puggaard
says is the best way to provide signal speed and to ensure uptime.
Chromaviso has engineered the light fittings to be flicker free,
There is also an ease-of-use aspect: At Odense, when
Durup’s team prepares for
a gall bladder operation,
it pushes a button labeled
“gall bladder,” one of about
a dozen presets on a simple
wall-mounted control panel
that also includes “liver,”
“appendicitis,” “patient,”
and others. Lighting will